“Coping with spam and Facebook” by John Freund CM looks at how the younger generation avoids spam by using Facebook, The fact that Facebook today numbers some 60 million users with 85% having a college degree should catch our attention also.

The article appeared in the September/October newsletter of the Eastern Province.

Coping with spam and Facebook!

How do young people cope with the bane of eamil – SPAM?

The short answer is they don’t. They rarely use email. They have found other, more effective ways to communicate by using what is called “social networking” web sites such as Facebook and MySpace . “Email is for old folks..” sums up their attitude.

Now I must admit it took me a while to really understand why the young have been saying “email is for old folks”. In fact it was only in early August that I began to see the light.
Maybe I didn’t want to believe that I was old.  After all I have been blessed (distracted?, cursed?) with a curiosity about things new and technological.  Email is such an integral part of life and now I am  “not with it” technologically. What was that finally opened my eyes?

“The facts, Ma’am!”

Facebook, a social network site begun in 2004, is the top global site as of  Aug. 12 2008. Of Facebook’s 132 million users, nearly 63% are outside North America. The site, which had been translated into 20 languages including French, Spanish, and Mandarin, has recently added 69 more. The fastest growing segment is the population 25  and older.
So it’s no longer just for American kids!

Even Business Week, has taken notice in a recent issue.

“If we told you that your organization could potentially reach a network of more than 60 million individuals, 85% of which have a college degree and many users with an active interest in changing the planet, would you be interested in taking 10 minutes to start utilizing this network? What if I told you it was free for your organization to use. Does that peak your interest even more?”

It should at least pique our interest if we are serious about reaching even a small fraction of this 132 million people network. And when you add the other social network sites the numbers are truly staggering.

In this article I would like a share a few insights behind the phenomenon and what it might mean for our ministry

So What Exactly Is Facebook?

The social networking site I am currently most familiar with is Facebook. It took just 4 years to reshape how a generation communicates.

Mark  Zuckerberg , while still a Harvard student, created Facebook  to provide an online mall for students to find one another, connect and interact.. It has since morphed into a social network for more than just students. He is now a very wealthy man.

One reason it’s so popular is because it’s very easy to use. Adding “friends”, updating your “profile”, changing your “status” message ― whatever you do takes just minutes. You can write on each others “walls” (our bulletin boards or fridge doors), send virtual gifts, announce events and then keep track of who is coming or might come and simply “poke” someone (tap them on the shoulder virtually). “Friended” is  the Facebook term for someone who been  included in a user’s Facebook network.

A campus minister in the Midwest discovered that  long before the retreat posters were prepared and plastered on walls a simple announcement on Facebook netted almost immediate commitments and a list of people who were thinking about attending.

And forget about shoe boxes of pictures and even other photo sharing sites on the Internet. Facebook has far surpassed the top 3 most popular of photo-sharing sites, combined.

In short just about anything you can do in the physical world you can do in this virtual world. “Clever integration of so many features  of everyday communication draws
people to the site.”

Social networking sites serve many of the same functions as bars, saloons, playground, back fences and malls. Time is short, friends are many. There’s always the best intentions to “keep in touch” and “let’s have lunch”. Facebook lets it happen.

Facebook is built around groups and made up of many social networks, each based around a company, region, school or other interest group.

There are many other popular social networking sites each with its own flavor. In addition to Facebook with its crisp design. Professionals looking to network their careers favor LinkedIn. MySpace tends to be more for teenagers.

Each has it own culture. Some say Linkedin is more of a chamber of commerce atmosphere and more professional networking. Facebook is business after hours.” MySpace has a more free-flowing teenage feel.

With the Internet changing and the idea of social interaction becoming more and more technology-based, Facebook may very well be one of the major tools to stay in contact in a new way with old and new friends and colleagues.

Another sign of how Facebook and other other sites are mainstream surfaced recently when a major cable new networ (CNN) encouraged viewers to follow their coverage of hurricane Gustav and engage in dialogue with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages.

More than fun and games

On May 2, 2003 John Paul II spoke prophetically: “The Internet radically redefines a person’s psychological relationship to time and space”.

While many people regard social networking tools as a fun diversion, some nonprofits are leveraging them to accomplish serious goals, such as increasing their visibility, helping constituents find jobs, and raising awareness about time-sensitive issues.
Social networking platforms give nonprofits (religious as well as secular) a forum for meeting like-minded organizations and potential supporters, and provide a medium for spreading their messages beyond the immediate community. Many nonprofits already have accounts and are reaping the benefits for their organization and their cause. There are four ways Facebook has benefited them: networking, recruiting, event promotions and notifying “friends” aboout new developments.

Don’t panic. E-mail “still holds more clout.”

No matter what dominates in the dorm room, e-mail still rules in the workplace. Office-bound graduates will be forced to make Microsoft Outlook—not AIM or Facebook—their first sign-on of the day. While it’s unlikely that email is simply going to go away any time soon, it’s worth watching how other systems, that are often so closely tied to email, evolve to match the changes as well. So much of the internet is now closely tied to email, that completely moving away from it is likely to have unintended

There are Downsides

The sense of loss some feel about the decline of e-mail has less to do with how we communicate than with what we communicate. The means by which we deliver a message affects its content.

As opposed to instant messaging, e-mail provides the breathing room to contemplate what we’re writing and express nuanced thoughts. A well-tended e-mail inbox and outbox can serve as a sort of diary, an evolving record of your curiosities, obsessions, introspections, apologies, and heart-to-hearts.

One writer puts it this way.
“Instant messages, on the other hand, are like Post-it notes, handy for a few minutes but hardly worth saving. While InstantMessages or IM’s and text messages have a throwaway quality, e-mail is for the sentimental. I still have some of the first flirtatious e-mails I exchanged with my wife in college. I have thoughtful monologues from friends in the midst of crises. I have e-mails from my parents that I envision showing to my children someday. “]

Take-away

I am not sure how many of us will or need to be involved in social networking sites such as Facebook. But I do think it is important to have some sense of what they are about. Knowing something about them may open even an unsuspected door to conversing  with your younger extended family members.

There are a number in the Vincentian family who are exploring this medium for vocational discernment, fund-rasing, advocacy, etc.

Especially if all this is new to you you might try asking some of the younger members of your family about Facebook.

This brief article barely scratches the surface. If you are interested in seeing what I and the growing number of CM’s, DC’s and others are up to visit http://www.facebook.com and in the search box type in John Freund. (There are a few others with the same name but I think you will recognize me.)

If this has indeed piques your interest see the Vincentian Encyclopedia article on “Vincentians and Facebook” at http://www.famvin.org/wiki. Once there put “facebook” in the search box.

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Tags: Anti-poverty strategies, evangelization, Facebook, media, spam, Vincentians and Media